Since the first prototype Model 35 in 1945, continuing to the recent G36, more than 18,000 Bonanzas have been built – and while it may not hold the record for most-produced light airplane of all time, the Beechcraft legacy workhorse has been in continuous production longer than any other plane in history. At a time when most light aircraft were still made of wood and fabric, the all-metal Model 35 Bonanza was a relatively fast, low-wing monoplane designed like war-time fighters – with an easy-to-manage, horizontally opposed, six-cylinder engine, a rakishly streamlined shape, retractable undercarriage and low-wing configuration. At the end of World War II, Beech Aircraft Company introduced the first Beechcraft Bonanza into the postwar civil-aviation market.
